Indiana Moves Up in Joe Lunardi's Latest Bracketology

ESPN's Joe Lunardi released his latest Bracketology on Monday, and Indiana basketball moved up to a No. 2 seed after a defeating North Carolina and losing at Rutgers.

Bracketology in December? 

Plenty will change by the time the real NCAA Tournament bracket is released in March, but it's interesting to see where teams stack up early in the season.

Indiana is coming off an up-and-down week, which started with a 77-65 win over North Carolina. Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis convincingly won his matchup against fellow preseason All-American Armando Bacot, scoring 21 points with 10 rebounds four assists and four blocks. The Hoosiers controlled the game, leading for the final 26-plus minutes with double-digit scoring nights from Xavier Johnson, Jalen Hood-Schifino and Trey Galloway to support Jackson-Davis.

Indiana began Big Ten play with a road trip to Jersey Mike's Arena to play a Rutgers team that simply out-toughed the Hoosiers. The Scarlet Knights sent constant double and triple teams at Jackson-Davis, and Indiana shot 30.4 percent from the field. Miller Kopp's 21-point effort kept things interesting for a bit, but Indiana's offense struggled mightily with Hood-Schifino out with a back injury.

By the looks of ESPN's Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology, the win over North Carolina carried more weight than the loss at Rutgers for Indiana's NCAA Tournament résumé. The Hoosiers moved up to a No. 2 seed, which is the second-highest projection of any Big Ten team. 

Here's the complete East region:

ESPN's Joe Lunardi has Indiana as a No. 2 seed in the East region / Joe Lunardi, ESPN

Lunardi has Purdue winning the Big Ten and earning a No. 1 seed. The Big Ten and Big 12 each got nine teams in the field, which is tied for the most of any conference. 

After Purdue and Indiana, Lunardi has Maryland as a No. 4 seed, Illinois as a No. 5 seed, Iowa and Ohio State as No. 6 seeds, Wisconsin as a No. 8 seed, Rutgers as a No. 10 seed and Michigan State as a No. 11 seed. To see the full Bracketology, CLICK HERE.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• WOODSON SAYS JOHNSON 'TRYING TO DO TOO MUCH': Jalen Hood-Schifino and Xavier Johnson played their best game together in Indiana's win over North Carolina. But with Hood-Schifino out with a back injury against Rutgers, Xavier Johnson and the Indiana offense struggled, revealing how valuable Hood-Schifino is to Indiana's future. CLICK HERE
• WOODSON RADIO SHOW: Indiana coach Mike Woodson had his weekly radio show 'Inside Indiana Basketball' on Monday at Southern Stone restaurant in Bloomington, Ind. He reviewed Indiana's win over North Carolina and loss at Rutgers while looking ahead to Wednesday's game against Nebraska. Here are the highlights. CLICK HERE
• RED FLAGS FOR INDIANA AT RUTGERS: Poor shooting and a lack of toughness did in Indiana at Rutgers on Saturday, and it raised some red flags as to how good this team can be. Even the Rutgers players knew they could be more physical than Indiana, and they were. For Indiana, were those lessons learned? CLICK HERE
• INDIANA IN AP POLL: Indiana had a big win against North Carolina last week, but also suffered its first loss of the year at Rutgers, and it had an effect on its standing in this week's Associated Press top-25 poll released Monday. CLICK HERE
• GAME STORY, RUTGERS TOPS INDIANA: Indiana struggled to shoot the ball and got whipped on the boards in a 63-48 loss to Rutgers on Saturday in their Big Ten opener. It was the Hoosiers' first loss of the season. CLICK HERE